Submitted by Stefan Gleason via Money Metals Exchange,
"The last duty of a central banker is to tell the public the truth."- Alan Blinder, former Federal Reserve Board Vice Chairman
The Federal Reserve Board finds itself back in a quandary of its own making. When Fed chair Janet Yellen pushed through an interest rate hike this past December, she confidently cited an "economy performing well and expected to continue to do so."
For those who follow the monthly consumer credit report released by the Fed there was nothing surprising in today's release of the latest Household Debt and Credit Report by the New York Fed. It reports that total household debt rose to $12.12 trillion in Q4, up from $11.83 trillion a year ago...
...mostly as a result of soaring student and auto debt, both trends we have observed on various occasions in the recent and not so recent past.
While the S&P 500 held support at January low (1,812) yesterday (and October 2014's Bullard bounce lows), BMO's Russ Visch warns "it may not hold in the days ahead" due to weak market breadth.
Given the ongoing collapse in market breadth (now breaking well below January's lows), BMO's Visch adds...
Every quarter members of the Fed meet with 12 representatives of the U.S. banking industry who comprise the Federal Advisory Council. This is what the Fed says about this specific council:
Phil's article below was from yesterday morning, before today's big spike in oil prices (2-12-16). He follows up on Oil Fears Spook Investors (Again), from Monday.
Why is oil currently up almost 12%? "US crude surges as much as 12% on output-cut hopes." Hopes.
(Screenshot: Yahoo's chart)
Markets Collapse as Sweden goes Negative & Oil Spills Over
From Thursday's article by Phil at Phil's Stock World